


home is where you go to rest your bones

by boywholived



Series: marauders era oneshots [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Hogwarts, Hogwarts Seventh Year, Self-Indulgent, good vibes all around, once again, they r all best buds because i said so, they watch the sunrise hehe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-27
Updated: 2020-08-27
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:21:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,573
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26148607
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/boywholived/pseuds/boywholived
Summary: So much has changed and while they still pull pranks and get scolded, while they still spend nights on the floor and cram for exams, the world outside is getting darker and Remus isn't afraid to admit that he's scared. And he longs for the simpler, happier times when all they had to worry about was if the charm they put on the map was advanced enough to stick for that long.But as he looks over at these boys beside him, the ones who stuck with him even after finding out he was a werewolf, the ones who devoted themselves to helping him and becoming illegal animagi just to make things a little easier. The boys who wake him up when class ends and take notes for him while he sleeps, the boys who bring him food from the kitchens if he doesn't feel like getting out of bed. These boys who turned into his family. As he looks over at these boys, the ones that changed his life forever, the only thought that goes through his head is maybe change isn't so bad after all.As long as he sticks with them, things can't get too bad, right?-Or, 3,5k of marauder's era feels and them watching the sunrise.
Relationships: James Potter/Lily Evans Potter, Marlene McKinnon/Dorcas Meadowes, Sirius Black & Remus Lupin & Peter Pettigrew & James Potter, Sirius Black/Remus Lupin
Series: marauders era oneshots [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1854523
Comments: 2
Kudos: 13





	home is where you go to rest your bones

**Author's Note:**

> title is from home by gabrielle aplin!
> 
> here we are again with a self indulgent one shot!! this  
> one is half the size of the other one but i still love it. i got the idea of the sunrise thing from a jily fic, stars shine bright by charmingwillow. it's a good fic go read it after u read this. 
> 
> literally this entire thing was born from a single piece of dialogue that i had floating around in my head and needed to write somewhere. i am proud of the results and writing from my boy remus' pov was also v fun because we r very similar so it was nice. 
> 
> its also not too sad, so like. don't worry it's just a bit emo aha bc i had to. anyways have fun reading! (i only read this over twice, excuse any grammar/spelling mistakes pls)

The Gryffindor common room is home to loads of parties, impromptu quidditch meetings, and on one occasion, a shaggy black dog sitting in front of the fireplace, resting his head on Remus Lupin’s feet. (To this day, no one knows where the dog came from and since Remus won’t tell, they’ve just declared it as one of the many Marauder secrets that none of them will ever be a part of.) 

In that very room, in front of that same fireplace, on a cold December evening, Remus Lupin is sitting on the couch talking to his friends. His boyfriend, Sirius Black is next to him, watching the scene unfold. 

“It’s about the patriarchy,” Marlene Mckinnon is saying from her armchair, waving her arms about and almost whacking their best friend Peter Pettigrew in the face. Peter is sitting on the couch next to Sirius, his legs thrown across both their laps. 

“Patriarchy?” Remus says, raising an eyebrow teasingly. “That’s a big word Mar, where’d you learn that one?”

“Oh fuck off Lupin I know basic English.”

“Does the word Patriarchy count as basic English?” James Potter says, sitting in the armchair directly across from Marlene, desperately trying to shove Dorcas over to make more room for himself. “Because if so, I need to catch up- Dorcas move over, go sit with your girlfriend.”

“Prongs, you not knowing basic English is just common knowledge at this point,” Peter adds.

James stops his scuffle with Dorcas to stare at Peter in shock. “How dare you, Wormy, I am offended.”

“That’s kind of the point.”

His messy-haired friend gasps, clutching a hand over his heart. Remus is trying to contain his laughter. It’s not working very well. 

“Look, Wormy’s right,” Sirius laughs, continuing over the sound of James’s loud protests. “But I will say, even I don’t know what that word means.”

“That’s not exactly a surprise, Black,” Mary Mcdonald says. “You don’t know much.”

Now it’s his boyfriend’s turn to be offended and Remus gives up trying to contain his laughter as Peter leans over to give Mary a high five. The werewolf just puts his arm around Sirius, dropping a kiss on the top of his head. He loves nights like these. The last night they’ll have before going home for the holidays, everyone is gathered around the fire and they’re the only people in the common room. For once, they’re not worried about exams, or the war brewing in the world outside. Their only focus is on the people around them. And also trying to keep James from turning into a stag out of anger, but maybe that’s just him. 

“How come you always insult me and James?” Sirius huffs, crossing his arms and burrowing in closer to his boyfriend. “Peter and Remus exist too, you know.” 

“Yes, but you two are the easiest to insult. It’s like you wake up in the morning and think, I’m going to be the biggest idiot I can be today, and that’s it,” Lily explains from where she’s leaning against Marlene’s chair, braiding Mary’s hair. 

“Lils, you’re not supposed to be mean to me anymore, we’re dating,” James complains, without any real heat behind the words. 

“Oh my bad, sorry love,” Lily blows a kiss to James sarcastically before continuing. “Besides, Remus insults himself enough that we don’t need to do it for him, and Peter is just an angel.”

“I don’t insult myself- I object to this,” Remus argues. Before he can continue, he feels a hand on his knee. It’s Sirius. 

“You really do insult yourself, we’ve talked about this,” Sirius says, turning back to Lily. “But Peter insults us all the time! He’s no angel!”

“I’m allowed to insult you, Lily said so and her word is the law,” Peter smirks. 

Sirius flips him off. He’s right though, whatever Lily Evans says in this little group of theirs is accepted as an automatic rule now. Remus isn’t sure where this came from, or when it happened, but he’s not complaining. He trusts Lily to not make bad decisions. Also, she’s too scary to argue with. She seems like a sweet, innocent girl to everyone who doesn’t know her well until you get her mad. Remus has seen it up close, and he doesn’t wish that on anyone. Except for Snape. Because Snape probably deserves it. 

“What are you thinking about?” He hears someone ask, and he looks over to find Sirius staring at him with a soft look in his eyes. 

“What makes you think I’m thinking about something,” Remus says. “I could be staring into space.” 

“You get this look in your eyes and you scrunch your nose a little,” Sirius explains, tapping his nose slightly. 

Remus laughs quietly, as to not catch the attention of their other friends. He lets them continue to argue. Catching Sirius’s hand, he leans in to kiss him and feels the other boy smile as he returns the favor. He’s carding one hand through Sirius’s hair, his other hand holding the side of his face when a pillow hits his boyfriend, bumping their noses together quite painfully. 

He lets go of Sirius and looks over his shoulder to find Peter staring at them. Once the blond boy notices Remus, he smiles and says nothing. Remus just sighs. He’s used to this by now, but it’s not his fault he feels the need to kiss Sirius every time they sit together. He just looks so kissable, what other choice does he have? 

“What was that for?” Sirius demands, swiveling on the spot to glare at James. 

“Don’t look at me,” James says while holding his hands up as a sign of innocence. “It was Pete.” 

“I hate you,” He informs their friend, shaking his head a bit to get his long hair out of his eyes. “I love you, but you’re the worst.”

“We were having an important discussion!” Peter exclaims. “I didn’t want you to miss it with all your snogging.”

“What sort of discussion could be so important that requires us to be present for it, just decide whatever it is without us.”

“Aw Sirius, I’m sure you can handle not snogging Remus for a few more seconds,” Dorcas laughs. It appears she finally got away from James, much to his delight, and is now squished into Marlene’s armchair. “Besides, you normally hate being left out of these plans.” 

“Yes, because I like to think of myself as a valid member of this group,” Sirius states. “Also my opinion means more than any of yours, except for maybe Lily’s.” 

This results in another 5 minutes of arguing. Remus watches as Peter gets hit in the face again, Mary almost stabs Lily’s eyes out as she swings around to prove a point to Dorcas, Sirius throws a paper airplane at James, (he doesn’t know where the airplane came from, but he doesn’t want to know) and James catches it, throwing it directly into the fireplace. This goes on for a little longer until Remus gives up. 

He stands. Everyone looks at him, then he realizes he has to say something now. He did not think this through. Unsurprising, he doesn’t think anything through, but people seem to think he does and he likes to keep up that charade. It makes people think he has common sense. He doesn’t, obviously. But it’s still nice. 

"Right," he says awkwardly, sticking his hands in his pockets. "Why don't you lot explain to us exactly what this plan of yours is, then maybe we can decide how to proceed."

Everyone nods at this. James opens his mouth, probably to start explaining the plan but Remus holds up a finger. "I should've clarified, anyone but James is allowed to explain."

Ignoring her boyfriend's protesting, Lily explains their plan of sneaking quickly and efficiently. Mary brought up the idea of sneaking out to the lake using the boys and their many, many, secret passages. James liked this idea immediately, and he decided that they would also break into the shed where Hagrid keeps the boats and go watch the sunrise. 

"How wonderfully romantic," Sirius coos, resulting in another pillow to the face, this one actually coming from James. 

"It's not a bad idea though," Remus says thoughtfully. He realizes he is still standing and feels as if he doesn't know what to do with his hands but he doesn't want to sit down. "Terribly flawed, but not bad."

"All our ideas are flawed Moony, how do you think Prongs got 40 detentions in first year alone?" Peter points out. 

That is a valid argument. Peter must read this on his face because he goes all smug. 

"So we're sneaking out then," Dorcas says. "That sounds like a death wish, let's do it."

And that seems to be the end of it. The common room is already empty save for the group of friends, so they don't need to worry about someone finding out their plans. Lily takes charge, ordering James to go up and find the cloak and telling Sirius to stand guard to make sure no one else comes downstairs. 

Remus and Peter are set to stand by the portrait hole with the map, ordered to by James, that is. None of the girls know about the map, that was one thing that would remain between the Marauders forever. 

The pair are standing in comfortable silence. That's one thing Remus always liked about being with Peter, and it's probably what drew him to the blond boy all those years ago on the train. Unlike James and Sirius, they don't feel the need to fill every waking moment with loud noises and booming laughs. The other two marauders stay quiet and make jokes underneath their breath, they laugh at everyone else and pretend to be solemn when a teacher starts shouting at them for inappropriate behavior. 

It's been like this since first year and Remus wouldn't have it any other way. 

Soon enough, everyone is ready to go. They decide to go in separate groups, the girls taking the invisibility cloak and the boys relying on their stealth and experience with sneaking around to get them to where they need to be. 

("You can't exactly call it experience, we get caught at least 90% of the time." "You're right Moony, and you should say it.")

So Remus takes Peter's advice which admittedly, is not the best idea, to begin with. Peter excels at pretty much everything else and is equipped to handle almost anything life throws at him, but his advice is, on the other hand, well that is rather unreliable. 

The incident involving Filch, Snivellus, James, and some misplaced potions just proves that. But that's a story for another time. 

Remus is in the middle of telling his friends that while it is a good idea, they should maybe take the time to plan out some more? So they don't get kicked out during their very last year at this damn school?

Of course, he's immediately shot down and the night continues as planned. 

Sneaking down the corridors like they're doing now brings him back to simpler times, of bright wide-eyed faces and hopefulness for what the future holds. Of Sirius' posh accent that dropped out over the years and Peter's face after he found the entrance to the kitchens, arms laden with sweets. Of James pining after Lily and nights spent huddled on the floor, listening to him talk about her beautiful eyes.

Of the weeks spent planning out the map, of the days brewing the animagi potion that would change the moons for him, forever. Of the loud laughter that echoed through the hallways after another wonderfully executed prank, of Mcgonagall's hidden smile as she scolded them for said prank. Of sharing looks with Peter whenever they would run into Snape, of cramming for the O.W.L's and the sleepless nights spent leading up to it. 

So much has changed and while they still pull pranks and get scolded, while they still spend nights on the floor and cram for exams, the world outside is getting darker and Remus isn't afraid to admit that he's scared. And he longs for the simpler, happier times when all they had to worry about was if the charm they put on the map was advanced enough to stick for that long. 

But as he looks over at these boys beside him, the ones who stuck with him even after finding out he was a werewolf, the ones who devoted themselves to helping him and becoming illegal animagi just to make things a little easier. The boys who wake him up when class ends and take notes for him while he sleeps, the boys who bring him food from the kitchens if he doesn't feel like getting out of bed. These boys who turned into his family. As he looks over at these boys, the ones that changed his life forever, the only thought that goes through his head is maybe change isn't so bad after all. 

As long as he sticks with them, things can't get too bad, right?

Or at least, not any worse than right now considering they are sneaking through the corridors when it is well past curfew and Sirius just whispered that he thinks he heard a teacher. Which, given the situation, is not good. At all. 

Remus hopes against all hope that the teacher Sirius hears is not McGonagall because that would end terribly and he is not prepared to try and find a way out of this. James, ever the Marauder, tugs all of them to the side and behind some tapestry that none of them had noticed before. There's a small empty space directly behind it and the four of them crowd in and hold their breaths.

The footsteps fade after a few more seconds after they've passed straight across the tapestry from where the boys were hiding. Judging by the muttering accompanying those steps, the 'teacher' Sirius heard was actually Filch.

Peter confirms this as he looks at the map. "Doesn't look like that wretched cat is with him, wonder where she's gone off to?"

"Her name isn't showing up on the map?" Remus asks. He now realized they could've used the map when Sirius heard those footsteps and found a different, less cramped hiding spot but decides not to voice that thought. It would probably result in more arguing and that's dangerous for all of them.

"No, she isn- oh wait no, she's by the Ravenclaw tower."

"Right then, we're safe," Sirius says impatiently, hopping from foot to foot on the spot. "Can we go now?"

"Yeah, the girls are almost there so let's hurry," James announces, leaning over to look at the parchment. 

At this, they head out once again and manage to not run into anyone else. Peter keeps an eye on the map and James is strolling ahead, hands in his pockets, looking as confident as ever. Remus takes up the back, Sirius directly in front of him. They're walking in a vertical line and it reminds him of those war films he used to watch as a kid, the soldiers standing in formation. It’s a bit of a strange comparison, 4 teenage boys sneaking out of school in the middle of the night to soldiers preparing for war but his mind is quite strange, so he’s not exactly surprised. 

They make it out of the castle quickly enough, and Remus isn’t exactly sure what is happening but Sirius is grabbing his hand and running, his black hair whipping through the air and making him look a bit like a princess. James is spinning around, hands in the air as he reaches the girls. Peter is jogging along, smiling at his friends, and tucking the parchment back into his jacket. 

It looks as if Dorcas has already unlocked the shed, now it’s a matter of trying to drag the boats out. None of them trust their levitating skills right now, considering the amount of firewhiskey they had at the start of the night. This results in the idea of carrying all the boats out manually. 

If anyone had decided to look out a window that night, they would’ve seen a very strange sight. 8 seventh years working together to try and steal the boats from the shed and someone dropping one of the boats on someone else’s foot. 

There’s a lot of whisper shouting and hisses of pain from Marlene specifically, as she curses Sirius and his inability to complete a task properly. Sirius objects to this and they start arguing until Remus shushes them, his arms are starting to hurt and the sun is going to rise soon. Of course, he actually has no idea of when the sun is going to rise but then again, no one else does either. So it doesn’t really matter. 

Finally, 10 minutes later, they have successfully extracted 4 boats. They decide, or rather, Lily decides that they should split into pairs to make it even. James immediately throws an arm around the redhead and Remus grabs Sirius’ hand. Marlene and Dorcas choose to go together as well, which leaves Peter and Mary. Those two dated for a while in 6th year, but they broke it off and stayed friends. None of them seem too upset with the arrangement, and when Remus catches Peter’s eye to make sure, he gets a smile and a nod. Good. 

Sirius, apparently tired of waiting any longer, hops into a boat and pulls Remus in with him. 

“Love, we’re still on the grass,” Remus says, smiling at the excited look on his boyfriend’s face. 

“Someone push us in!” Sirius demands and laughs when Dorcas does just that, shoving them into the water with a splash. 

The pair pick up the paddles that are stored in the side of the boat for emergencies, because they haven’t a clue on what spell to use, and start moving. They get to the center and stop. Remus tugs on Sirius’ hand to get him to sit in the middle of the boat, next to him, while they wait for the others. He happily obliges and tucks himself into the werewolf’s side. They sit and watch the stars, Sirius pointing out all the ones he recognizes from their long nights spent at the Astronomy Tower, sipping on cocoa and tucked under blankets. Remus laughs as Sirius makes up names for the stars he doesn’t recognize, and things are warm, and they’re good. 

Soon enough, the three other pairs catch up and rest in the center of the lake as well. Remus looks around at his friends, these people who know him inside out, these people who will stand by him no matter what. James and Lily, giggling quietly as Lily tangles her hand with his. He remembers when those Lily hated him, except nah, she didn’t. He remembers hearing about their first kiss and cheering along with everyone else as James broke the news with a smile. Lily talking about him before they got together and teasing her for the way her eyes lit up when she found him in a crowd. 

Peter and Mary, with their inside jokes and sly smiles that no one else understood. The way they’re sitting, legs overlapping as Peter splashes water on her face and she retaliates. How nervous Peter was before their first date and how James insisted on following them to make sure nothing bad happens and Peter doesn’t get hurt. He remembers how even after they broke up, you could still find them together in the common room or under the trees outside, laughing and talking as if nothing had changed.

Dorcas and Marlene, leaning into each other as they stare up at the castle. They always knew how to cheer everyone else up, the way Marlene knew exactly how to calm Dorcas down when things got too heated in an argument. Their loud laughter echoing through the room as they raced each other down the stairs. Marlene insisting on walking Dorcas to class like some sort of cliche. He remembers the feeling of happiness he got when he saw Dorcas kiss Marlene on the cheek before heading off to detention, clapping for them when they came out to the group.

Then he looks at Sirius, the boy he’s loved since fourth year. The one who always understood him no matter what, who stayed at the hospital wing long after Madam Pomfrey ordered them out. How he threaded their fingers together when Remus got too worked up about class and asked him to breathe. Padfoot, who loved him through every moon and bursts of anger, who was there for him no matter what. As the sun rises over the lake, and light floods his face, Remus looks at Sirius and thinks, I want to keep you safe, I need to keep you happy. 

Because Sirius Black means everything to him, and always will. 

“Hey,” Remus whispers gently, catching Sirius’ chin and tilting his face toward him. “I love you, you know that?” 

Sirius smiles, his eyes going bright and his nose scrunching. “I love you too,” He whispers. And he kisses him. 

As the sun rises over Hogwarts, as light floods the sky and brightens the valley surrounding them, Remus Lupin kisses his boyfriend on the lake, their friends all around them.

**Author's Note:**

> pls don't hate me if i got something wrong w the first year boats thing i have no fucking clue how those work so... i guessed and i improvised. 
> 
> as always, come talk to me:  
> tumblr: jsctens  
> instagram: evclynsheart


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